It’s an occupational hazard of putting on public events that occasionally a member of the public will turn up who has fried their brain on too many drugs, or become unhinged at some point and never re-hinged. And – usually – they are tolerated/made allowances for. This, after all, is the society we hope we are pre-figuring.

But my it is exhausting, and it can spoil the opportunities for a pint afterwards.

This is a whine, of course, from someone with a roof over his head, food in his belly, and a gazillion other advantages.

I suppose we are to be judged – by ourselves and others – by the compassion we show to people who – either through their own ‘fault’ or just shitty bad luck (maybe they started to take drugs to escape the pain of childhood abuse? Who knows? Does it matter?) – are a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic. The only time it gets messy is if those people are being intimidating.